Mobile payments

Apple's mobile wallet has been out for just four months, and already it has shaken up the way mobile payments operate at the point of sale. It has faced pushback from some merchants and banks, but it has also popularized new forms of security and other payment technology.

While Visa and MasterCard aren't yet applying the same level of pressure for tokenization security as they are for EMV-chip cards, the card networks' CEOs are clear that this technology is their new expectation for e-commerce.

Several wallet apps already let restaurant patrons order ahead for takeout and/or pay without waiting for a waiter. A Ukrainian company called Settle takes this concept a step further by also allowing customers to skip the wait for a table.

Google reports a dramatic increase in mobile shopping, suggesting the channel is now mainstream for consumers.

The telco-backed mobile wallet Softcard is at a significant crossroads. Though it once saw the debut of Apple Pay as an opportunity, Apple may actually be edging its rivals out of the market, and Softcard's next move will decide not only its own fate but also the strategies of the banks and merchants that could benefit from its technology.

The introduction of Apple Pay has also thrust Near Field Communication-based contactless payment technology out of the wings and into the spotlight.

Apple Pay's Touch ID is the exception, not the rule. Biometric security typically requires some type of add-on hardware, a model that has struggled to get much adoption over the years.

Among the many obstacles for mobile payments, the most daunting is getting shoppers to change behavior. The fact is that plastic cards have worked quite well for a very long time and consumers are quite used to them. To get consumers to change decades-old habits is far from easy.

Apple Pay has secured a dominant position at the point of sale, with two thirds of all U.S. contactless payment volume coming through Apple's new mobile wallet, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook. But this may not be the boost to mobile payments that many experts have long predicted.

Mobile payment and commerce provider Mozido LLC is bringing on a former MasterCard executive as its president for global markets.

Western Union is adopting a vastly different use of Apple Pay than what banks and merchants have so far considered.

The Federal Reserve System threw its weight behind a host of standards, goals and timelines yesterday that are likely to shape the quest to build a faster U.S. payment system.

Amazon.com's decision to quietly shut down its digital wallet app last week shows an uncharacteristic caution on the part of the e-commerce giant. Merchants throughout the Web use the company's e-commerce services, but the mobile and digital payments world is considerably more cutthroat.

The 16th hole at the Waste Management Phoenix Open PGA tour event at TPC Scottsdale has become golf legend because it is the only time on the tour in which fans cheer and jeer each tee shot as if at football game.

Smartphone-based payment systems promise to let shoppers eliminate the hassle of carrying cash and credit cards around. But even as mobile payments spread, there’s one piece of plastic people still can’t leave home without: their driver’s licenses.

If consumers, designers and artists led the discussion about how we make payments in the future, they would likely come out with a vastly different system than the one technologists are creating today.

WePay is looking to boost transaction activity among its small business users by offering access to Google Wallet with minimal steps.

Starbucks, which handles 16% of its in-store sales as mobile payments, is looking to push that number even higher. Its evolving strategy combines its mobile app, its gift card and its rewards program into a powerful package.

Monitise is pushing aggressively into new markets to build its profile, but mobile financial services' impact on traditional technology development is threatening the company's relevance.

Starbucks Corp. named former Juniper Networks Inc. Chief Executive Officer Kevin R. Johnson as its next chief operating officer, underscoring the role technology now plays at the coffee chain and mobile-payment innovator.